In much of the history of the world "rich people" have been in fact controllers in one form or another of the public's purse strings; nobility, royalty, religious leaders have been most of the world's rich people, merchants and industrialists are rather new entries into that class.

In other words most of the grand artistic works people point to as being funded by "rich people" were funded by public wealth controlled by those "rich people".

That's true, but I posit that today's richs aren't the same as before. I'll even go further and claim that culturally speaking, the middle class doesn't exist anymore; at least in Western Europe.

They may have more money, but they're statistically the same Spotify/YouTube/TV slop addicted zombies as the class under them, perhaps with just a little less sportsball and more vapid traveling to "discover ze world and culture and stuff <3".

The same argument holds for lots of things: e.g. most pre-enlightenment scientific progress was made by priests (because they had an education and were able to spend time thinking about stuff). This is no longer true because we live in more enlightened times.

Just because rich people used to be the only source of arts funding doesn't make them the best source of arts funding.

If you’re referring to Fountain, it was more of a statement about the art world than something with intrinsic value that requires funding to preserve imo. Those kinds of things can be done with duct tape and a banana.

They're largely in 100% agreement, eg: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2...

wouldn't have happened without rich people's money and influence.

"Best" art in history is a relic of past powerful people's taste and ambitions. And of the preservation of it (still today, there are fools that willingly destroy/erase remnants of art or culture).

The difference is that today, civil servants/"democratic" structures/the "free" "market", through intent or fate, are also some of the powerful ones.

The point would be to find a structure of power that allows each and every one to express themselves fruitfully for/to the whole.